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Monday, December 31, 2012

Resolution 2013


I had a very open-ended resolution for 2012. Last year, I resolved simply to "Do Better." You see, 2011 was pretty brutal in my personal life and I knew that those problems would carry over. So I threw out all the lofty "lose weight get in shape" goals and simply committed to doing better. To not only survive, but move forward. My writing was sparse, but I did my best to up my game in what I did write, and my two 2012 releases pleased me a lot. The Bacchi and Silver/Steel are both books I'm proud of. And for the most part, I managed my health and diet pretty well, falling into the occasional abyss of cheesecake and Twizzlers.

Yeah, some bad stuff happened, but I handled it for the most part.

2013 is looking somewhat better than 2012. I'm ahead on my writing, have an agent, and my mother is having surgery this week for a problem that's been plaguing her for quite some time. Hopefully  her health will continue to rebound. My niece KJ has been accepted to a day program after being at home full time for 2 years. That gives me a five or six hour block of time every day that's truly my own.

This year's resolution is also open-ended. This year I want to work toward putting my house in order. Not necessarily my literal house (though that's on the list) but my virtual house. My finances, my career, my personal life. This year I want to move from temporary fixes to permanent solutions. Instead of scrambling to organize my receipts for the year, I'll log them as they come in. I can't stop the sun from roasting me in my office during the summer, so I've bought thermal shades. I'm tossing out the Medi-fast diet food, the miracle diet drops and am restocking the kitchen with healthy food.

So many of the problems that crop up in our lives are symptomatic of something else. I carried a feeling of uneasiness and depression for a long time, till I finally faced up to an overwhelming money situation. Once I addressed it and made arrangements to handle it, I felt a fresh lease on life. Better organization allows me to stay on top of administering meds for two sick people, social workers, dogs stuff and writing.

This is all part of getting my house in order. I want to throw out the quick fixes and get to the heart of the problem. If I'm unhappy, I'll search out the root of the problem rather than tossing a bandage (usually made of chocolate) over the wound. I expect this year's journey will involve some healing, some fence mending (not only in the dog yard) and more than a dash of humility. It won't all be easy, but then, if it was easy, it wouldn't be a problem, right?

So tell me, what are your hopes, expectations and goals for the upcoming year?

Friday, December 28, 2012

First Kiss Party!



This is the party time of year! Come join over 40 authors sharing first kisses of their characters at Kay Berrisford and Tara Lain's blogs! There will be prizes, including free e-books and a gift certificate. Be sure to join us December 31 thru January 1!

www.kayberrisford.com

www.taralain.com

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Happy Birthday, Lynn!

This is Lynn Lorenz's birthday and I'm taking part in her celebration! If you are participating in her birthday celebration, leave a comment for a chance to win her grand prize. (an Amazon gift certificate!!) Also, just for leaving a comment here, you're entered for a chance to win a .pdf of my new Arcada book Silver/Steel!

REMINDER! To win the gift certificate, you must post at all the blogs...head on over to Lynn's chat to get the details...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/karendevinkaren/ 

Here's a note from Lynn:

To win the $100.00 you need to....

1. go to all the blogs of the authors giving away prizes. leave your name and
email at each along with a comment or like.

- Jessica Freely at http://www.friskbiskit.com/
- ZA Maxfield at her blog... http://zamaxfield.blogspot.com/
- Belinda McBride at http://www.belindam.blogspot.com/
- Tara Lain at the one she posted for her prize.

2. go to my Goodreads blog
http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/3473933-lynn-s-birthday-bash
and leave your name and email and comment or like.

Then tomorrow evening I'll get all the list and those who hit ALL the blogs will
be in the running for the grand prize.

Authors will pick from their blog entries for their prizes and so will I.

So you have like...6 chances to win some great books!

Good luck!

Happy Birthday, Lynn!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Contest: Help Me Design My Website!!!

As the release of Silver/Steel was approaching, I thought to myself...gee, this would be a good time to redesign my website. I mean, I have to add in the new book anyway, may as well update the entire thing.

Yeah.

Well.

I won't bore you with the details, but of course, lacking the basic knowledge of website design, everything  that could go wrong...did. Thank goodness for those live support chat boxes! So the new site is up and live, but far from complete. In fact, there are some brand new, exciting pages...that are completely empty. And yes, there are broken links. *sigh*

So I need your help. I need YOU to help me pick out a page background for the site. Right now, 10 pages are live, with 10 different background themes. Head on over, click through the pages, come back here and tell me which page theme you like best.

Since this is December, and in my new book Silver/Steel, one of the heroes is quite pagan, I'm going to give the winner (randomly chosen from the comments below) a lovely Celtic themed piece of silver jewelry by Peter Stone. The exciting thing about this prize it that the designs are all discontinued. These are pieces I held onto from when I had a retail business almost a decade ago. (Yup, it was called Wyld By Nature!)

 You can choose from earrings or a pendent. If you like wolves, I also have a cute little silver wolf charm.

So...go  look at my website and click through the pages. Take note of the page theme you like best (ie: I like the green background on the "About" page) then come back here and tell me in the comments.

BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!

I will choose a winner at midnight December 9 (Sunday) and contact the winner the next day.




When dream hunter Dylan Ryve spots a beautiful shapeshifter raising hell in a bar, he knows he wants the wild young man. But Travis Feris is more to Dylan than a few hot minutes outside in the snow; he's the assassin's ticket into the magical town of Arcada. He didn't plan to rescue the kid, but when he found the shifter being attacked, the opportunity to play hero was too good to pass up.

Through the solitude of a long winter night, Dylan walks in Travis's fevered dreams, learning about Arcada and the pack, and showing the shifter the man he'd been so very long ago. When morning comes, both men know their lives will be forever entwined.

From Dylan, Travis learns that he is a strong, valued member of the pack. The dreamwalker sees his own worth reflected back at him in the dark blue eyes of the wolf. Yet when Dylan has the chance to free himself from centuries of enslavement, can he betray the man he has come to love?

  • Note: This book contains explicit sexual situations, graphic language, and material that some readers may find objectionable: BDSM elements, domination/submission